School Resource Officer Used Taser to Wake Student

A school resource officer in northeast Ohio who decided using her Taser was the best way to wake up a sleeping student has been suspended and could face criminal charges. Officer Maryssa Boskoski didn't actually jolt the student with thousands of volts of electricity, News5 reports, but she activated the stun gun a few feet away from him with no cartridge, which causes a buzzing, sparking noise and emits an arc of electricity. The classroom teacher and the interim principal had been unable to wake the sleeping student, but the noise from the Taser—and from surprised students—was enough to rouse him.

Boskoski, 32, was placed on unpaid leave after the Aug. 30 incident at Liberty Preparatory School in Smithville. In a letter, school officials notified parents of the inappropriate Taser use, but stressed that "at no time was any student in any kind of danger," reports the Washington Post. Smithville Police Chief Howard Funk says he will meet with the town solicitor to see if charges should be filed, reports the AP. He says he is "disappointed" by the action of Boskoski, who was disciplined last month for failing to remove the cartridge before testing her Taser near another officer. (Last month, police in Georgia used a Taser on an 87-year-old woman who was looking for dandelions.)